I Should Know You
by CowboySpike
Summary: Lee doesn't feel right. Neji tries to regain some normalcy by expressing interest in his friend's situation but ends up revealing a lot more about himself. A onesided kind of affair because I do love to torture the stoic ones.
1. Chapter 1

Hi all. I was bored at work one day so I started writing on a tiny piece of reciept. A coworker came over and looked over my shoulder and laughed at me writing so small. Even if she could read it, I don't think she would understand it. I mean... I don't understand it all that much. Anyway. It's just some NejiandLee things that came out of me one day. Enjoi.

--  
I Should Know You

"Neji," Lee said quietly, like a whisper in the dark, silent sitting room. "I just don't _feel_ right."

Lee didn't have to say it. Neji could tell his friend wasn't himself as of late. Lee seemed lethargic and just all together sad. It could be attributed to few things. Sakura's absence was one factor.

She'd been the main focus of Lee's thoughts since they'd first met and now she was a rare sight. Off being trained, Neji supposed, by the Godaime, who'd taken the fair maiden under her wing.

The next culprit was their now elusive team leader, Gai. With a new war boiling under the surface of a few antsy shinobi villages, the elite of Konoha were away more often than not. Which meant Gai donning his long-forsaken Anbu gear and heading off on mission for weeks at a time. Without Gai as a source of encouragement and energy, and Sakura absent as Lee's object to fixate on, Lee was deflating rapidly.

It made Neji vaguely sad that he himself had no particular impact on Lee's mental state. He hadn't the confidence to challenge Lee's feelings so he resolved to be the one to lend an ear. Be the good, solid, understanding friend for once. Ease his way into Lee's immediate circle of loved ones.

"It looks like you don't feel right."

"Is it that obvious? I don't know what's wrong." Lee moaned, dropping his eyes with his brow furrowed in worry. "I've never felt like this before. Usually if I start slipping, something comes along and- and breathes life back into me or something." His inkling of enthusiasm soon faded. "But this time it's not going away."

Lee's eyes begged for something Neji knew he couldn't provide. Silence permeated the room. Neji had brought Lee to his home in an attempt to show some friendship and possibly to improve his mood. But now that he was there Neji didn't know what to do with him.

"Something's missing, right? It looks like I'm missing something, doesn't it?"

Yes, Neji thought. You're missing two things. Through the chain of Gai to Lee to Sakura ran a current of love and adoration that without the source and the destination, the current stalled in Lee and ran dry. Lee hadn't the love Gai gave and hadn't the outlet Sakura provided.

Since Neji couldn't possibly assume either of those roles he resolved to simply affirm his friendship with the boy.

"Lee... you know... Gai and Sakura aren't the only ones who care about you. You can find what you're missing from them in others." Neji said, almost uncharacteristically timid.

"Gai and Sakura?" Lee repeated. "No, they can't be what's missing. It's more than that."

"I know. It's because they love you. And they're very special to you. But you can't let yourself get like this just because they're away. They still love you. And... just so you know... you have friends that are still here, okay?"

Lee fell silent for a moment while Neji tried to read him with those perceptive eyes of his. Lee shifted on the pillow he was sitting on and absorbed Neji's soliloquy.

"Neji, I'm sorry." He said at last. "I didn't mean that- ...I know you're my friend. You don't have to tell me that." He smiled, finally. "Thanks, though. You're right, I shouldn't be like this. I feel strange but I shouldn't burden you with it."

"Nonsense. I should expect you to listen as well should I ever feel the need to complain about something." The boy displayed a rare but sincere (and small) smile.

Lee smiled too. "We shouldn't just sit around then. Let's go out and have fun, hm?"

"Well, y'know... We don't have to."

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Usually you're the antisocial." Lee chuckled. "Okay. Let's just stay here."

So the two adolescents sat in comfortable silence for a time, just breathing and occasionally studying the ceiling. Eventually, Lee broke the silence.

"Neji, do you love someone?"  
--

Fear not, it continues. Some other time.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two.

--

"Neji, do you love someone?"

Neji was caught off guard by the question and paused before responding.

"No."

"90 of hesitations are followed by lies."

"Honestly, who would I love, Lee?"

"I dunno." Lee answered before they fell into silence again.

"You really love Sakura?" Neji broke the silence this time.

"Mm. Yeah. I think so."

"What's it like?"

Lee shifted and moved closer to Neji. They sat cross-legged facing each other, knees nearly touching. Lee leaned forward and rested his chin in his two upturned hands. Their eyes were locked, Neji thought Lee's face looked tired, like being awake was a struggle he was more than happy to bear. Then he spoke.

"When you love someone, first just being near them makes your heart pound and your stomach clench. Then soon just thinking about them makes that happen. Next thing you know, all your thoughts and feelings are driven by this person. Then their feelings and emotions directly affect yours. Then thinking about them makes you want to... touch them and be close to them." Lee paused, smiling in some sort of fond recollection.

"And that's all?" Neji responded.

"Well, that's as far as I've gotten." Lee said with a brilliant smile. "Something tells me the next step is doubt, though."

"Doubt? Doubt of what?"

"Doubt of everything." Lee said, matter-of-factly. "I doubt what I feel for her is sincere. I doubt that she even reciprocates my feelings even after all this time. I doubt that she's being completely faithful. I even doubt sometimes that what little we have in common will keep us together."

"I see."

"Can't sympathize, eh?"

"I didn't even realize your relationship was that... meaningful." Neji expressed in all honesty. "Does she love you back?"

"I dunno." Lee smiled almost sadly. "She hasn't said so yet. Ever heard of unrequited love?"

"Of which you are the definition?" Neji joked.

Lee laughed a little. "Right. Definitely. Well, unrequited or not, love is love."

"If it remains unrequited, don't you wish it would just go away?"

"Maybe... maybe some day I'll get fed up, huh? I don't know. There's something about unrequited love that feels just good enough that you don't want it to go away."

"It's cruel, isn't it?" Neji said quietly, in a low, even tone and an equally vague smile.

"I knew it. You DO love someone." Lee said, his face quickly brightening.

"Not so much a person as an idea."

"Which would be?"

"You."

Lee's eyes doubled in size immediately. He looked suspiciously at his friend. "Neji, I'm most definitely a person."

"I know. And I don't love you per se... It's just that sitting here talking with you... well, I feel that thing with my stomach. Like someone's pressing on it right here." Neji gestured to a region between his solar plexus and belly button. "That's the clenching you were talking about, right?" Neji asked, completely unwavering and calm.

"...Why do you feel that?"

"You don't think it's love?"

"Could be indigestion. I don't think you're capable of that kind of love. Towards me, anyway." Lee joked, secretly mindlessly scared that his friend might have feelings for him.

"That may be true. But... I've never been this close to you before. Do you realize that this is the first time you've been to my home? And the first time you've told me about Sakura." Neji explained in total calm. His face was, unsurprisingly, unreadable. "This is the most intimately we've ever spoken and we're revealing all about our love lives. Don't you think that's enough to shock a little emotion out of me?"

Lee studied his companion with a worried furrow on his brow. "At this point, I'd rather complain that you're too cold."

Neji laughed a little. "That's not fair. You've done something to me to make me feel different and now you want me to remain the same."

"I have...?"

"Well too bad." Neji interrupted. "I'm keeping this." He rose from his seat on the floor. "Wanna go out? I know someone who will sell me alcohol."

Lee looked up at his friend, mouth agape. This was about to be the beginning of something very strange. And very new.

--

Uhh. Cliché ending, I know. Sorry. Anyway, a lot of this unrequited love talk comes from experience. Also, I have this belief that if you are in the proper proximity with someone, feelings for them can just come from nowhere. So I applied it with these two and there ya go. I like how Neji reacts to his revelation. Soo... bye.


End file.
